A Conversation with Kenneth Pinedo of Student Activities

The Spring semester is well underway here at Centenary University and many activities around campus are constantly organized by Student Activities, a well known organization on-campus run by Jamie Weingarten, with the goal of encouraging students to get involved. 

Kenneth Pinedo, a graduate student assistant, works alongside Weingarten to coordinate events. I had the opportunity to sit down with Pinedo and discuss his role with Student Activities. 

Can you describe your position here at Centenary University?

My position on campus is the assistant director of Campus Life. I work alongside Jamie Weingarten, who is the director of Campus Life. Together. We run campus activities commonly known as student activities. We have our own student activity workers, about fifteen students. We basically set up events on campus. We have one event basically every other day. 

What are you in charge of at Student Activities? 

I am specifically in charge of campus intramural so anything to do with sports and video games. I do all that. I do almost everything and anything. Along with the intramural tournaments, we look to host the video game tournament at least once a month. 

We are currently in your office. Can you describe this space?  

My office is in the back of the Cyberspace. This space used to be called The Vibe, which was a social media classroom turned into a Cyberspace. We have several different video game consoles. All students are welcome to come in between classes. They can also reserve the space and host their own meetings. We have a projected screen where we can broadcast live sports games and it’s just a space where students can hang-out, do some homework, and enjoy their time. 

What drew you into this position? 

I initially started working for Student Activities as a freshman on campus. I was formerly invited to the position by a former goalkeeping coach on campus. Once I started working with Student Activities, I realized it’s one of the best jobs to have as a student on campus. As a student, it gives you good balance, gives you responsibility as a student, and you become more involved in the community because you are at all the events yourself. They are student-led events, which gives you a better sense of what the real world is going to be like because you have attention to different details, and you get to experience different things around campus. 

What challenges do you face as assistant director of Campus Life? 

Some challenges we have been seeing right now is the transition of new incoming students. It’s hard to get a sense or feel what students really like and want to do on campus. There’s a lot of students who, if it's really cold out, aren't going to leave their rooms no matter what. It's just figuring out what they really want. Whether it's either food-related, prize-related, if it’s taking them to different trips, those are some things we have seen have been doing some success. It's just about allowing students to do something they’ve never done.  

Any closing statements for the record?

Don’t forget to pop out to our indoor roller skating night at the Reeves Gym on March 18th at 8 p.m. Be there or be square!